Arch supporter



Patented Sept. 27, 1927.

UNITED vSTATES PIETRO IACOVINO, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ARCI-I SUPPORTER.

Application filed March 21, 1925. Serial No. 17,411.

rI`his invention relates to footwear and particularly to an improvedarch supporter and has for an object to provide a construction which maybe readily applied to footwear during the course of manufacture or afterthe manufacturing operation has been completed and function properly forsupporting the arch and tilting the foot in the desired manner.

'Another object of the invention is to provide an improved supporterwherein a stiffening metallic strip is provided immediately rbelow* thearch and a resilient pad at a forward point for -tilting the foot toovercome any defects therein. l

A still further object of the invention is to provide an insert forshoes wherein means are provided for holding the insert in place andmeans holding part of the insert are arranged to cause the foot to takethe right position in the shoe.

In the accompanying drawing- Figure 1 is a fragmentary longitudinalvertical sectional view through a shoe with an embodiment of theinvention applied thereto.

Figure 2 is a bottom plan view of the supporter shown in Figure l, thesame being on a greatly enlarged scale.

Figure 3 is a sectional view through Figure l, approximately on line3-3.

Referring tothe accompanying drawing by numerals, l indicates a piece offootwear of any kind, asfor instance, an ordinary shoe and 2 the insert.The insert 2 is preferably formed from a piece of leather 3 cut adesired shape as shown in Figure 2, a metal bracing or stiem'ng memberland a pad 5 preferably of rubber. The stiffening and -supporting memberat is permanently arc--shaped and is connected with the leather body 3by rivets 6 and 7. The respective ends of the metal supporter 4 areformed with spurs 8, which spurs are forced into the inner sole 9 of theshoel. Usually the spurs are made of suflicient 'length to not only passthrough the inner sole but pass fora short distance into the outer soleand in this manner firmly vanchor the supporter 2 in position so thatthe supporter when correctlyy placed in the shoe is held there and thesame is prevented from slewing or slipping sidewise. At any desiredplace between the arch and the toe is arranged a pad 5 cemented orotherwise secured to the body 3 and formed with a thickened portionAtapering to a thin edge in three directions whereby a raised sec-tion isprovided while the body 3 covering the pad 4L presents a smoothcontinuous surface. Preferably the edge 10 is chamfered or beveled foran appreciable distance back whereby there will be no abrupt change fromthe top surface of the body 3 and the top surface of the front part ofthe inner sole 9. The pad 5 has been shown on the left side of the rightfoot so as to support the right foot near the great toe. The pad -ispositioned at this point in order to take care of any improper shape orzagging of the foot at the point indicated and thereby prevent twistingof the foot when inserted into the shoe. If the right side of the rightfoot should be lower than normal, a suitably shaped pad would be used onthe body 3 below the right side to support the right side of the foot inorder that there will be no twisting of the foot when the pressure ofthe body is brought to bear thereon. It

will be understood that the left foot may have a supporter embodying theinvention and the pad 5 adjusted to the particular condition or shape ofthe foot.

What I claim is:

In an arch supporter, a leather body adapted to t flatwise into thebottom of a shoe and extend lacross the shank of the slice, arectangular straight narrow metallic stiffening member curvedlongitudinally, said stiffening memberV being formed with struck-outportions` at each end in alinement with the longitudinal center of thestifi'ening member and presenting spursadapted to be forced into thesole portion of the shoe and preventing slewing of the supporter, rivetspositioned back from the ends of said stiffening member for rigidlyconnecting the stiffening member with the leather body and leaving thespurred ends free, and a pad near the forward end of the said leatherbody for tilting the forward end of the said leather body for tiltingthe Yforward inner part of the foot when the supporter is in use.

PIETRO IACOVINO.

